


The Way Back Home To You

by writinggoblin



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, Fluff and maybe a bit of angst, Gen, Platonic soumates, what can I say its Zuko of course there's angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:48:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28558605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writinggoblin/pseuds/writinggoblin
Summary: When Zuko was born he only had one soul bond, and it was broken. Well, maybe it would be more accurate to say it was defective, because ‘broken’ implied it had once worked and could be made to work again.ORZuko's path to his soulmates is longer and more complicated than most
Relationships: Katara & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka & Zuko (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar), Toph Beifong & Zuko
Comments: 18
Kudos: 320





	The Way Back Home To You

**Author's Note:**

> So I was in the mood for soulmate AUs a few weeks ago and on top of reading a lot of them I also wrote some. This is is like 95% fluff but it made me happy to write.
> 
> Title from 'The Way Back Home To You' by Mike Rubino

When Zuko was born he only had one soul bond, and it was broken. Well, maybe it would be more accurate to say it was defective, because ‘broken’ implied it had once worked and could be made to work again. Broken bonds occurred when one half of the bond died, and the mark would retain its shape but turn white. This mark had no shape, a blank band wrapped around his infant wrist. Like a connection had tried to form but there was nothing to attach to on the other end. No one could make any sense of it, nothing like this had ever been seen before in living memory. A search of the archives had revealed nothing, either. The Fire Sages speculated that he might be cursed by the spirits. To their credit, Zuko admitted, the events of the future would seem to bear this out.

When they got older, Azula would make fun of him for it. She informed him that he had reached out to try and form a bond, but no one had wanted him. He was too pathetic and useless. Who would want him? Father would tell him that the fact his soul had tried to bond meant it was naturally weak, and he should be grateful the bond was rejected. Now he could learn to be strong. If he wasn’t such a slow learner, that is. Only Zuko’s mother was kind about it, but she also knew that it wasn’t his fault the bond hadn’t formed. There was nothing wrong with him preventing him from forming bonds. After all, he had the others.

The first one appeared when he was a little less than a year old. Ursa didn’t tell her husband when it appeared, instead she made sure the mark was covered at all times. She had heard Ozai and Azulon discussing that it was fortunate the child hadn’t had any complete marks; it meant no ‘removals’ would be necessary. She had shuddered visibly as she said that word to her son, after. Shortly thereafter, Ozai had ordered his wife to tell him if marks appeared as new soulmates were born, and Ursa swore up and down she would. Then she promptly ignored his orders. 

So Zuko kept his first complete mark. It was a blue band, bent in the middle on his wrist, with two empty holes on one side. The edge was white, and the two ends passed each other on the inside of his wrist. The second (third?) mark appeared a year later, just above the first (second?) one. This one took the shape of a plain blue band, with a circle on top in the middle of it. Inside the circle was a water tribe design of some kind. The fact that it was water tribe worried his mother to no end. This, paired with his father’s extreme opinion of soulmarks, meant that from a young age he had been taught that he couldn’t show them to anyone, even if they showed him their soulmarks first.

The third complete mark didn’t come until two years later, when he was four. It was black, curled at the ends. By the time this mark appeared, he was old enough to ask his mother about soulmarks. He waited until they were alone, feeding the turtleducks one afternoon, then he proceeded to pepper her with questions. How did they work? What did they mean? Why did they appear one at a time? His mother responded to each question calmly, if a bit sadly.

“Your soulmarks are physical representations of a spiritual bond. These marks each represent a person, and they will be the most important people in your life. In time, you’ll find each of them and connect to them, forging a full soulbond.”

“but what if I don’t like them? What if they’re mean?” he asked worriedly. She seemed to hear what he didn’t say. What if they’re like Father? Or Azula?

“The thing about soulmates is that they aren’t like other relationships you’ll have in your life. These three other people… they’ll be right for you. Don’t worry, sweetie.” 

“What about the fourth mark?” he pointed to the blank band around his wrist, closest to his hand. 

“That one’s not complete,” Ursa sounded sad now, “There’s no one on the other end of that bond.”

“Oh. Why Not?”

“I’m not sure sweetie. I’d never heard of a mark like this before I saw yours. No one had.” 

“Oh, okay. Do you have any soulbonds?” He knew Azula and his Father didn’t, but his mother never talked about it.

“One.” She said sadly, but she refused to it to show him. 

~:~:~

Over the next two years, Zuko clung to the knowledge that he had soulmates out there. He needed to believe that there were people who were going to be ‘right’ for him, as his mom put it. People who would love him and be there for him, no matter what. He needed to believe that it was true, as things got worse. When he turned five, his father stopped letting him see other kids his own age, saying he needed to focus on his own studies. He didn’t complain, he knew he wasn’t doing as well with his bending as he was supposed to. Azula, only three, was already learning the basics of bending he himself was still struggling to master. He practiced harder, he focused more on getting better. He thought about his soulmates more often. On his worst days, when he was by himself, he would push up his sleeve and look at his marks. It would make him feel less alone. 

Which is why, when he was six, he found himself tracing the lines of his soulmarks one day after a particularly brutal training session. He couldn’t seem to master the new set of katas he was learning, and his teacher had punished him severely for his failure. At least he hadn’t cried this time. He ran his finger along the white edge of the first mark. Father would beat him too, when he found out how badly his son was failing.

“I wish I could talk to you.” He breathed softly. The owner of this mark wasn’t that much younger than him, his mother said. What he would give to have another kid his own age around. There was Azula, but she didn’t count. And Ty Lee and Mai, but they were Azula’s friends, not his. She was doing well at her studies, so she was allowed friends, father said. He felt so, so alone sometimes. 

“Um. Hello? Fire Guy?” The voice that replied made him jump out of his skin. He jerked his hand back from the mark on his arm, but the voice continued. “Are you still there?” Hesitantly, Zuko lowered his hand to the mark again. He wasn’t sure why, but it felt right, like a connection was open through the mark.

“Um yea, I’m here.” Zuko stammered hesitantly, “Are you- are you my soulmate?”

“Yea I think so, or one of them at least. My sister also has your mark.” The voice sounded young, about his age, and male. 

“Is she the water tribe pendant or the black swirls?” Zuko asked.

“The pendant. You have the black swirls too?”

“Yea, is it- is it normal to have the same soulmates as all your other soulmates?”

“I don’t think so, my mom and dad always thought it was weird that my sister and I matched. Plus, there’s the blank mark.”

“You have that too? Do you have any idea what it means?”

“None. Mom thinks it means there’s someone else we’re destined to connect to, but for some reason their soul can’t reach us yet.”

“The Fire Sages said I’ve been curse by the spirits. Since I was only born with the one defective bond.”

“Oh yea, I suppose the rest of us are younger than you, huh? I didn’t even think of that. So, the incomplete bond is older than you?”

“Yep.” A thought occurred to Zuko “How did you know I was Fire Nation?”

“Your mark.” Said the voice, as if it were obvious, “It’s this red band, with a golden flame in the middle.” His hair band, Zuko realized, involuntarily reaching up to touch it, “I figured only a member of the Fire Nation would have a mark like that.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” Zuko nodded, then stopped abruptly, as he realized his soulmate couldn’t see it, “Are you water tribe? I mean, I guess you must be since your sister is.”

“Yea, I am, I guess the boomerang isn’t super nation-specific is it?” Zuko blinked, and then realized that his soulmate’s design must be a boomerang. How had he never noticed before? 

“No, although the blue should probably have been a tip off.” Admitted Zuko, “Any idea where black swirls is from?”

“No,” said boomerang, “Could they be Fire Nation, since there are two of us from the water tribe?” 

“Maybe, but I’ve never met anyone with a mark like ours, so it’s no one I know.” Said Zuko. Of course, generally marks were private in the Fire Nation, but he didn’t know anyone the right age, anyway. There was a brief silence, then Zuko continued, “Is it normal to be able to communicate with your soulmate like this? I’ve never heard of it before.”

“I don’t know. I’ll ask my parents, as soon as I see them. I wonder if we can do this with my sister, too!” They were interrupted when someone knocked. Zuko sucked in a breath.

“I have to go, sorry.” He said softly, “Goodbye.” Then he removed his hand from the mark.”

“Bye!” the soulmate replied brightly. Zuko smiled, feeling lighter than he had in months.

~:~:~

As it turned out, it was not normal for people to be able to talk over a bond, and even rarer to speak over such long distances. While Zuko lived in the Fire Nation, the two siblings live in the Southern Water Tribe, and their fourth soulmate soon after revealed she was in the Earth Kingdom. They didn’t use their real names or say exactly where they lived, because the siblings’ parents were concerned. Zuko and the Earth Kingdom girl would probably have received similar, if not more serious, restrictions, but they neglected to tell their parents. Father would never let this continue if he knew.

Still, they respected the restrictions laid down by their soulmates’ parents, and their soulmate in the Earth Kingdom jumped to assign them all nicknames. Zuko was, apparently, to be hereafter known as Sparky. The Water Tribe boy became Snoozles, for unclear reasons, his sister was dubbed Sweetness, an ironic nod to her cutting sarcasm. Their final soulmate dubbed herself the Blind Bandit. There was some huffing on Snoozles part about the unfairness of these names, but Bandit would hear none of it. Unfortunately for all of them except her, the names stuck.

“Have you made any progress on looking into our incomplete bond, Sparky?” asked Bandit one afternoon. Zuko was lying on his bed, his hand laid flat across his wrist so he could talk to all his soulmates at once. 

“No,” he sighed. At one point he had mentioned that he had access to a library in the Fire Nation, something not available to anyone else. Well, Bandit did, technically, but she was blind, so books were of limited use to her. She’d need to enlist someone to help, and her parents would put a stop to it if they found out. Zuko’s father would put a stop to it too, but he could conduct his research in secret more easily. 

“I’ve been wondering if maybe we should consider investigating spirits, rather than just soul bonds. It isn’t just the bond, exactly, is it?” Sweetness reasoned, “Maybe we need to consider examining it from the spiritual side, not just the physical.”

“It’s definitely worth looking into,” Agreed Zuko, “If I ever get time to myself to research again. I’ve been falling behind in my studies. Father isn’t pleased.” 

There was a pause. A few months ago, he’d admitted to his soulmates his Father and his tutors beat him or burned him when he disappointed him. Their initial reaction was that they should either come here and kill anyone who tried to hurt their soulmate, or that Zuko should escape and come live with them. Zuko had replied that he had no way to escape. Bandit’s parents were unlikely to be willing to take on a random kid from the Fire Nation, even if he was their daughter’s soulmate. Snoozles and Sweetness’s parents would be the more likely people to take him in, according to them, but there were few ways to get to the Southern Water Tribe. On top of that, he didn’t have any money to buy passage with. Bandit seemed pretty keen on them coming to him to teach his father a lesson but trying to take on a bunch of adults with his soulmates wasn’t a good idea either. In the present, though, Sweetness responded to his current predicament. 

“Make sure your taking care of yourself, Sparky.” She said seriously, “Understanding our bond comes second to your own safety.”

“I know,” Zuko sighed, “It’s not because of the research, it’s just because I’m not very good at firebending.”

“Are we totally off the idea that the incomplete bond has something to do with our being able to talk like this?” Snoozles cut in.

“It’s not that we think it’s wrong or anything,” Bandit replied, “There’s just no way to prove it without knowing what the bond is.” 

“I still think looking into previous cases of connections as strong as ours, we could get some answers.”

“The trouble is, it’s not like there are books written just about this sort of connection, they’re so rare their usually just mentioned in passing, and usually between two people close together. There are only a couple over any significant distance. I can’t find any accounts of four!”

“I can’t believe there’s never been anything like this before in all of human history.” Sweetness exclaimed stubbornly, “There must be something we’re missing!”

“There is one story about a connection like this, that I found a few days ago” Said Zuko quietly, “but honestly it’s more of a folktale than a real factual account. There was an Avatar who was supposed to be able to do this with a group of her soulmates, seven or eight of them, regardless of wherever they were on Earth. The strength of the Avatar’s spirit fostered the connection.” 

“Well unless one of us is secretly the Avatar, that’s not likely to be it.” Sighed Snoozles.

“I’ll keep looking.” Zuko promised.

~:~:~

It was a few months later when the first tragedy struck. A Fire Nation ship arrived in the South and killed Snoozles’ and Sweetness’ mother. Zuko thought they would decide not to speak to him, since it was his family’s fault, but instead they reached out for support from their soulmates. Zuko was reminded they didn’t know he was a prince, but all the same he swore to them that if it were his choice, he wouldn’t attack civilians. Honestly, he’d stop the war altogether. He knew too much about his soulmate’s lives to think that his was better. On his more bitter days, he envied the love that they had in their families. Even Bandit, whose parents were overbearing and smothering, did their best to protect her. (Not that Bandit needed any protecting, recently she had been regaling them with tales of her Earthbending practice with the badgermoles. At six, she was better at bending that Zuko was at ten.)

Just as his soulmates began to recover from the loss of their mother, things began to go wrong in Zuko’s family. Lu Ten died, and Uncle abandon the siege at Ba Sing Se. Zuko cried, but his soulmates were there to comfort him. Azulon told father to kill him, father consented to it. Only his mother’s actions saved him, and now even she was gone. Zuko was finally, fully alone. His soulmates urged him to flee again, but he was crown prince now and his every action watched. He didn’t think he could escape, now. Part of him wondered, too, about the possibility of change. If he would be Firelord one day, and then he could change the Fire Nation however he wanted, right? He might even be able to end the war. He didn’t speak these thoughts aloud to anyone, not even his soulmates, but he couldn’t escape them all the same.

Somehow, another two years slipped by. Bandit told them all about some adventures she’d been having in the world of underground Earthbending fights. Snoozles talked about how he was getting better not just with a boomerang, but also with a club and a sword. Sweetness lamented not having a proper waterbending teacher. Zuko and Bandit both suggested that she go North to find a proper teacher, but she had reservations about leaving her father and brother, which none of them could fault her for. Despite Zuko scouring the library for clues, they were no closer to uncovering the secrets behind the soulmark. Eventually Bandit began to search her own family library, using some poor servant for help, under the guise of understanding her own bonds better for purely academic purposes. Her parents were relieved she was taking up such a quiet and safe pursuit. Although they warned her not to try and seek out her soulmates until she was able to look after herself. She had cackled maliciously as she had told them about that.

Zuko threw himself into his studies, determined to become a worthy heir, a worthy prince. He was never as good as his father wanted, never as good as Azula. Still, he improved. Uncle returned from his travels a changed man. He began to spend more time with his nephew, taking a personal interest in his training. Zuko improved faster than before. He asked to sit in on some of his uncle’s meetings, where he learned more in five minutes than from his books and tutors in a week. He begged to be allowed to attend a council meeting. His Uncle acquiesced but warned him not to speak. 

Zuko didn’t listen. He spoke out against one of the general’s plans. How could the sacrifice these soldiers so carelessly, when they were loyal servants of the Fire Nation? He agreed to fight an Agni Kai against the old man. He knelt in the arena, steeling himself for the fight. He touched the wrapping on his left wrist, covering his marks. Everyone still thought he was just covering the one incomplete bond, but he knew they were all there beneath the cloth. The thought of his soulmates gave him strength. He turned, shrugging off the vest covering his shoulders.

The moment he saw his father standing opposite him rather than the old general, he fell to his knees. He begged his father’s forgiveness, begged him to show mercy. The Firelord showed none. His father’s hand blazed with fire and everything went red. It hurt, it burned. He screamed and screamed and screamed and it burned and burned and burned. The hand was no longer on his face, but the burning didn’t stop. It just went on and on. He kept screaming. Then he heard it.

“Holy shit Sparky are you okay?”

“What is that, what’s happening?”

“Dude, what’s going on? What is that?!” 

The pain was projecting through the link, he could hear the fear in their voices. He could hear them suffering. The world was going dark, he couldn’t think straight. Even still, he focused on one thing, closing himself off. He wouldn’t, no, he couldn’t let himself keep hurting the people he loved. The panicked voices faded; the link severed. As his screams gave way to sobs, he slipped into darkness.

~:~:~

He was banished from the Fire Nation for his disrespect in the council meeting and his cowardice during the Agni Kai. He was tasked to find the Avatar; only then would he be allowed to return. He was told all this by his Uncle when he regained consciousness three days later on a ship. He hadn’t even been allowed to recover back home. Being cast out of his country, tossed aside by his family, hurt worse than Zuko thought it was possible to be hurt. 

However, it was only the third worst pain Zuko experienced that week. The first was, of course, the burn. As badly as it had hurt to get, the continuing pain was almost as bad, and went on for months while it healed. Getting it treated, getting salve rubbed on it so it wouldn’t be infected and then bandaged, all of it hurt. It hurt too, when he looked in the mirror and saw the lasting damage that had been done to his face. In the end, it was the single worst thing he ever endured. 

Coming in at a close second, however, was when he took off the wrapping on his arm, still there from the Agni Kai three days previously, and saw his soulmarks for the first time since that day. They were all still there, the boomerang, the necklace, and the bracelet. The moment he saw them, however, he knew something was wrong. They seemed faded, like all the colors were now muted. Only the incomplete bond was unchanged. His hand shook as he placed it against the marks. He closed his eyes and tried not to let his voice shake,

“Hey, are you guys there? I could really use some advice right now.” He wasn’t surprised when they didn’t respond, but he felt the last flicker of hope die inside him as he was met with silence. The link was severed, he couldn’t talk to them anymore. The moments surrounding the burn were blurred, he remembered the pain, their frantic words from the other end of the bond. He couldn’t remember what he’d done to close it off though, and he wasn’t sure it was reversible. He wasn’t sure he should reverse it, even if he could. He was… broken. Broken and weak. He’d lost everything in his life in one fell swoop, and he had no one to blame but himself.

~:~:~

The next two years were some of the worst in Zuko’s life. He spent them cut off from everyone, his family, his soulmates, his entire country. Well, except his uncle, but these days Uncle Iroh was more irritating than helpful. Sometimes Zuko wondered if Iroh actually wanted him to capture the Avatar at all. Mostly, though, they just argued about whether or not the Avatar was even alive and even if he was the likelihood of being able to find him. Sometimes, when Iroh was particularly fed up, he would point out the chances of being able to defeat a century old master bender of every element as a teenager who was still mastering one. Then he immediately seemed to regret it.

Zuko knew his uncle was right on every count but tried not to think about it. He searched ceaselessly for the Avatar, starting with the air temples, and then every town and city in the world chasing every rumor and whisper of the Avatar. Which is how he found himself standing on the deck of his ship in the biting cold of the South Pole. Behind him, his Uncle was drinking tea and playing some useless, time-wasting game. Zuko was scanning the horizon for signs of the Avatar for the spirit-only-know-what time. He needed to be constantly vigilant, pay attention to the smallest signs. The location of the Avatar could be given away by the tiniest hint. He couldn’t afford to- 

A gigantic column of light leapt fifty feet into the air. Zuko didn’t even notice the faint tingling in his left arm as the incomplete bond completed itself.

~:~:~

Zuko tracked the Avatar to a small Water Tribe village. The boy surrendered. Two water tribe peasants followed him, and they escaped together on some sort of fluffy horned monster with too many legs. Zuko spent the next several hours digging his ship out of a glacier, and he tried not to think about his soulmates. They must be so close to him here, but he made no effort to look for them. Not that there was much he could do to find them without their connection. He’d long since learned that people were loath to give Fire Nation soldiers information. He couldn’t really blame them.

Zuko had to stop to repair his ship after the Avatars attack, and he tried to keep what had happened from Zhao. It didn’t work. Zhao found out about the Avatar. Zuko beat him in an Agni Kai. Zuko and his crew was forced to flee back to their ship and depart before the repairs were complete. The ship’s mechanic shot him a dirty look when he asked her to finish the repairs herself.

~:~:~

Zuko burned down a village looking the Avatar. Zuko snuck back into the Fire Nation chasing the Avatar. Zuko hired a bounty hunter to find the Avatar. Zuko made a deal with Pirates trying to capture the Avatar. Zuko disguised himself and broke the Avatar out of Zhao’s prison so that he could imprison the Avatar himself. For some reason the boy was devastated to leave some frogs behind. The Avatar asked Zuko if he thought they could be friends. Zuko shot fire at him.

Sometimes, when Zuko was feeling especially lonely, he would roll back his sleeve and run his hand over his marks, willing them to reopen. At some point, his final mark had turned into an arrow, but it was as grey and dead as all the others, and Zuko decided it didn’t matter. Then he punched a fireball across the room so hard it dented the wall. Briefly, he had the necklace that belonged to the Water Tribe Girl. He tried to compare it to the mark on his arm, but the design on the mark had faded into the background color, making it impossible see. Not that it mattered, obviously these Water Tribe peasants weren’t his soulmates. They were standing in the way of him restoring his honor, he couldn’t believe his soulmates would ever do that to him. 

~:~:~

Things only got worse. Zuko was blown up by Zhao after losing his crew to Zhao. He captured the Avatar only to be nearly killed twice; first by the cold and then by the Water Tribe Girl. The one bright spot was when the Ocean Spirit took Zhao. After he had killed the moon, Zuko felt he deserved whatever he got. His plan had been insane. Soon after Zuko found himself fully on the run from the Fire Nation once Father sent Azula after him. He hadn’t seen his sister in three years, and she’d only gotten worse. He wondered how his soulmates had changed. Then thought about how he’d changed. This did not make him feel better.

He and Iroh split up once Zuko turned to crime to feed them. He was driven out of a town for Firebending to protect people. Azula and he both found the Avatar at the same time, and Iroh found him. Azula hurt their uncle to escape. The Water Tribe Girl offered to help, and Zuko had to Firebend to make them back off. He couldn’t trust them; they were his enemies. They’d probably kill Uncle if they got the chance. Iroh got better, and together they ended up in Ba Sing Se. Azula came to take Ba Sing Se. She offered him the chance to return to the Fire Nation, and he took it. It wouldn’t be until much later that he realized he’d chosen wrong. 

In his old room, he sat on his bed as he looked at his marks just like he’d used to when he was a kid. He’d betrayed his soulmates, even if they didn’t know it. Working to capture the Avatar would only help his father hurt everyone who wasn’t Fire Nation. Not that what he was doing was good for the people in the Fire Nation, either. And what his father was planning to do the day of the comet… it was pure evil. He thought of Bandit, presumably still imprisoned by her crazy parents in the Earth Kingdom, and what his Father was going to do if he wasn’t stopped. So, when the palace moved to hide everyone in the tunnels during the eclipse, he wrapped up his marks in red cloth, strapped his swords to his back, and went to face his father. 

~:~:~

His offer to help the Avatar went over about as well as he’d expected. That is to say, it was a complete disaster. They didn’t trust him, which was fair. Although, Zuko couldn’t help but feel they were overestimating his abilities a bit. If he’d been smart enough to think of infiltrating their group so that he could gain their trust only to lead them directly into a trap, he would have done it by now. Most of his plans were just, ‘find the avatar, beat him, take him back to the Fire Nation’. Plus, he wasn’t nearly a good enough liar.

Which was why he accidentally admitted to hiring an assassin to try and kill them. It went over about as well as he might have guessed. Honestly, all things considered, the fact that they let him leave alive was pretty generous… And then he managed to burn the feet of the one person in the group that didn’t hate him yet. Making his perfect day complete.

In the end, he was only allowed to stick around, begrudgingly, because he nearly died trying to stop the assassin he had hired to try and kill them. It… wasn’t his finest moment. It also wasn’t his lowest moment. So, he decided not to let it worry him to much. 

~:~:~

It was really weird helping the Avatar, rather than trying to capture him. Everyone was uncomfortable around him. Except, somewhat confusingly, for Toph. Despite having her feet burned, she seemed surprisingly not angry with him. When he asked her about it, she had just laughed and said,

“Please, it was clearly an accident. I’ll get even with you on my own time, but I see no reason to hold a grudge. Sugar Queen has that covered.” 

“Yea, I guess so.” Then he hesitated. The moment he’d laid eyes on Toph, he’d wanted to ask her about her soulmarks. After all, how many blind superpowered earthbenders could there be in the world? “So, I’ve been meaning to ask-”

“Hey, Your Majesty, Aang is looking for you!” Sokka shouted across the courtyard. 

“Well, I guess that’s your cue, Sunshine.” So, he had no choice but to go find out what Aang wanted. And he didn’t have the chance to ask Toph about her soulmark.

He and Aang started their training that afternoon. For some unknown reason the kid insisted on calling him ‘Sifu Hotman’. Unfortunately, Zuko proved not to be much of a teacher. He was having trouble with his Firebending. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Toph who was the one who suggested the solution: search out the original firebenders. Which is why somehow Zuko found himself on a life changing fieldtrip with Aang to seek out the ruins of the Sun Warriors.

~:~:~

Zuko and Aang’s adventure with the Sun Warriors had two side-effects. First, Aang forgave him and began to think of him as a friend. Aang was just the sort of person who couldn’t hold a grudge for very long. Zuko suspected it might have been causing him physical pain to distrust someone who was helping him. The second thing that happened was Zuko realized just how young Aang really was. He was a kid. A scared kid being asked to face the Firelord, who was crazy and evil enough to set fire to the entire Earth Kingdom and burn his thirteen-year-old son’s face. Oh, and they also learned the root of firebending from dragons. So that’s three things, technically.

Barely a week later Zuko found himself helping Sokka break his dad and girlfriend out of prison. He wasn’t quite sure what had driven him to do it, he just knew that he wasn’t letting Sokka break into the most secure prison in the Fire Nation alone. Naturally, in keeping with Zuko’s luck, Azula showed up, and the only thing that saved them all from dying in a boiling lake was Mai’s betrayal. He’d never be able to repay her for that. He must have been less subtle than he’d thought about his worry for her, because Sokka sought him out on the Airship they’d stolen from Azula. For a moment he just leaned against the railing next to Zuko. 

“Hey, man, you okay? You seem… gloomier than usual.” Sokka asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

“Oh, yea. I guess. I’m just worried about Mai.” He admitted.

“She’s your sort of ex-girlfriend, right? I mean, clearly she still likes you, since she just crossed Azula for you.” There was a strange look on Sokka’s face as he asked his next question, “Is she your soulmate?”

“Oh, no. I don’t have any romantic soulmates.” He said. “Are you and Suki…?” He felt embarrassed for asking, it wasn’t done in the Fire Nation unless you were young and didn’t know better. Sokka didn’t seem to mind, however, maybe in the Southern Water Tribe it was okay to ask these things. Which was good, because Zuko had been dying to ask if Sokka knew his own soulmates. 

“No, I have four, all platonic.” He explained, watching Zuko carefully. “Me, Toph, Katara, and Aang are all soulmates, plus someone else. We’re not sure who, though. Aside from the fact that he’s a he, and he’s Fire Nation.”

“Oh…” he tried to process this information but couldn’t bring his brain to accept the possibility. He might already have met all his soulmates already. And tried (or succeeded) to abduct, injure, or kill all of them. That would officially make him the worst person in the world. Well, okay he might take third place behind his sister and Father. He was at least opposed to burning the world down. 

Sokka was still staring at him, and Zuko had no idea how to voice what he was thinking. Wordlessly, he unwrapped the red cloth from around his left forearm, trying to ignore how badly his fingers were shaking. He watched Sokka’s eyes widen, unsure what the other boy was thinking, until Sokka reached out and touched the boomerang on Zuko’s arm. It glowed, springing back to full color the way it had been years ago. Warmth spread through his arm and into his chest, and he knew Sokka was his soulmate, even without the glowing and the warmth, he would have known. It felt right, somehow. Which is when he lost it. Sokka didn’t seem nearly as thrown as Zuko was by the sudden tears. For the first time in months, maybe since the North Pole, he found himself on the receiving end of a hug. It did not help with the tears. 

“You wanna tell me what’s wrong?” Sokka said after a while, “cause most people are happy when they meet their soulmate.”

“I’m a terrible person.” Zuko muttered, “and I’m a terrible soulmate. I sent an assassin to kill my soulmates! It doesn’t get much worse than that, even if I didn’t know who you were.”

“Wait… you didn’t realize we were your soulmates?” Sokka sounded baffled.

“Of course not!” Zuko pulled away, “Wait, you were prepared to forgive someone who knowingly tried to have his soulmates imprisoned?”

“well, I mean… you came around eventually.” Sokka said, as if it were obvious.

“You know, there’s such a thing as being too forgiving, right?” Zuko replied stubbornly.

“Are you trying to convince me to not trust you?”

“I’m just concerned about your judgment!”

“How could you not know I was the boomerang?! I hit you with it the first time we met!”

“I don’t know! I thought it was a common weapon in the South Pole!”

“Well it is… but what about Katara’s necklace?! You actually had that for a while! Why didn’t you realize it was the same as your mark? Or the blue arrow? That’s pretty obviously Aang!”

In reply, Zuko just extended his arm with the faded marks again. The blank disk that was apparently Katara’s, the grey arrow that was Aang. Sokka’s eyes widened as he realized the truth.

“Oh, shit.” He whispered.

“I tried not to look at my marks much honestly.” Zuko admitted softly. “After I got banished… I was not in a good place, and I didn’t want to drag anyone else down with me. So, it was easier not to think about my soulmates. Especially since they were just another thing I’d lost along with my honor and my home and my family.”

“So… I get if you don’t want to talk about it right now, but I have to ask. What happened? We… all sort of wondered if you were in some Fire Nation prison somewhere or something. You weren’t dead, obviously, and you weren’t frozen in an iceberg…”

“Yea, I guess that sort of answers our question about what was up with our fourth bond, huh?” Zuko sighed 

“I kind of wonder if we set some sort of record for most never-before-seen bonds.” Sokka joked.

“I didn’t mean to cut myself from the rest of you permanently like that.” Said Zuko, “I just… I knew I was hurting the rest of you and I didn’t want to. I don’t even really know how I did it.”

“We figured.” Sokka nodded, “We all felt this burning pain, like the left side of our head was on fire…” A look of horror crossed Sokka’s face as he suddenly realized what the left side of Zuko’s head looked like. 

“Well you were right,” offered Zuko, “It was exactly like the left side of your head was on fire.” Sokka laughed despite himself.

“That’s not funny” he scolded.

“you laughed.” Replied Zuko.

“Only because it’s so fucked up I don’t know how else to respond.” Sokka defended.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you curse this much.”

“I can’t curse in front of Toph and Aang! They’re children. Okay, Aang is a child and I can’t swear in front of him. Toph swears like a sailor.” Sokka amended at Zuko’s raised eyebrows. 

Sokka spent the rest of the trip filling Zuko in on everything that had happened to him and Katara in the last three years. Some of it he knew already. For some reason Sokka even insisted on going over the events that Zuko had actually been present for. He claimed that he had prepared to tell his soulmate all of this and just because Zuko had been there didn’t mean he wasn’t going to use all the material he’d saved up. To his credit, Sokka was an excellent storyteller, and it was funny to hear all the events they’d been through from his perspective. 

~:~:~

“Toph already suspected you were our fifth.” Sokka explained later that day after they’d landed. He’d asked the other three to meet them by the fountain after dinner so they could talk it out as soulmates in private. Not that the others knew that yet. 

“She’s been planning to interrogate you for weeks, she just needed the right opening.”

“I’m glad I came clean before that happened, then.” Zuko fidgeted with the edge of his arm wrap. “I feel like Toph would be terrifying at interrogation. Plus, she’s human lie detector.” Sokka nodded seriously,

“If she ever manages to get on the other side of the law, I think she’d be good at it. Of course, she’s a good criminal too.”

“Damn straight, Snoozles.” Toph announced as she strode in, “I am a woman of many talents.” 

Katara and Aang followe close behind. Aang looked excited and was practically bouncing as he walked. Of course, Aang usually looked like that so it was hard to tell whether or not he suspected anything. Katara glowered at him, so everything was normal there, at least. He doubted she’d ever forgive him. Not that he deserved it. 

“So why are we all here exactly?” Katara asked, eyeing Zuko suspiciously, as if this were somehow a trick.

“Well, it turns out Zuko’s our fifth soulmate!” Sokka was practically vibrating.

“I knew it!” shouted Toph, “Everyone but Aang owes me money!”

“Wait you gambled on whether or not Zuko was our soulmate?” cried Aang, sounding dismayed. 

“It was the first night after Zuko joined us. I didn’t know he would turn out to be a good person!” Sokka protested, “Plus, you have magic lie detector feet! Those are cheating!”

“I told you he was being honest! I win fair and square!” Toph shot back with obvious glee.

“Katara? What are you thinking?” asked Aang, she hadn’t said a word yet.

“I think he’s no soulmate of mine.” She said, and she turned and left. After that, there was a long silence.

“She’ll come around, don’t worry.” Aang assured him. “and the rest of us are glad you’re our soulmate!”

“Yea, I missed you, Sparky!” Toph grinned. She punched him in the arm affectionately. Zuko just bit his lip. There was a long moment of silence before Aang asked,

“Zuko, is everything okay?” 

“Yea, what’s wrong Sparky?” demanded Toph.

“I-” he swallowed, struggling to put it into words. “I’m sorry about… everything. I was horrible to all of you. I didn’t know I was your soulmate, but… I should have. And I shouldn’t have done it, either way. Katara… isn’t wrong. You’d all be within your rights to reject your bond to me. Why aren’t you?”

“Well, I can’t speak for Twinkle Toes or Snoozles, but you really didn’t do anything to me.” Toph shrugged glibly.

“I burned your feet!” Zuko exclaimed

“By accident after I snuck up on you.” Toph replied, “You’re jumpy. Which, ya know, makes sense since you’d just betrayed your abusive dad and psycho sister. I owe you an apology, by the way, you were right, your dad actually is the worst person in existence. I’m shouldn’t have doubted you on that one.” It took Zuko a second to realize that Toph was talking about an argument they’d had three years ago before he was banished. 

“Thanks, Toph.” Zuko mumbled, blushing. For some reason, knowing she’d remembered that stupid little moment made him feel oddly happy. Next, it was apparently Aang’s turn to embarrass him.

“If you had known I was your soulmate would, would you have attacked us?” Aang asked seriously.

“No, but it doesn’t matter, it was still wrong!” Zuko argued.

“But you realized that it was wrong anyway, even without knowing about our bond, and you left to teach me Firebending. It can’t have been easy to do. Plus, you’ve saved all our lives, and helped break Suki and Sokka and Katara’s dad out of prison. You’ve more than made up for it.”

And suddenly Zuko was crying for the second time that day. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d cried before today, now he couldn’t seem to stop crying. Suddenly, he was being hugged from three different directions. Aang was always very hug motivated, and Sokka had already hugged him through the last crying jag. Toph’s hug was something of a surprise though. Everything he’d learned about Toph these past few weeks, and, he realized in the years he’d known her before, said that she did not hug people. Yet here she was, hugging him. This knowledge, somehow, helped him pull himself together.

“So, not to make you cry again, Sparky, but what the hell happened to you three years ago? Why did it feel like my face was melting? Plus, how did you not know we were your soulmates? It’s not like your blind!” 

Which led to a retelling of the story he’d already told Sokka. At least this time, Sokka was there to help him tell it. When he showed Toph and Aang his marks and explained how Sokka had reactivated his they both hurried to touch their respective marks. This time, he recognized the odd sense of relief that flooded in along with the warmth. He couldn’t push away the nagging suspicion that this was what it felt like to be made whole again.

~:~:~

Katara was a problem. If anything, she hated him even more since she discovered they were soulmates. Zuko couldn’t convince himself to actually blame her for her reaction to the news. This, of course, did nothing to stop the others from blaming her. When he tried to object to their outrage on his behalf, Sokka turned to him and said seriously, 

“Look, I get taking a while to warm up to you. After everything that happened, you join the gaang has been an adjustment for us all. I even get being mad at you. I don’t agree, but I get it. That doesn’t mean she gets to be a jerk and make every interaction we have as a group unpleasant. She’s the one making this difficult. You’re not doing anything wrong, most of the time you agree with her!”

“Yea.” Said Toph, “We really need to do something about your self-esteem, Sparky. No one gets to be mean to my soulmates, including my soulmates. So, you and Sugar Queen both need to be nicer to you.”

“She’ll move forward eventually.” Aang assured them, “We just need to do what we can to help her reach that point.”

Zuko hoped Aang was right. He really didn’t enjoy being the cause of so much conflict between his soulmates. A strange part of him had surfaced since he’d discovered his soulmates, a part of him that wanted more than anything to protect his soulmates from danger and pain. He wasn’t about to let anyone hurt them. Especially, he had decided as he pushed Aang hard in his training, Firelord Ozai. 

~:~:~

Aang wasn’t right about Katara moving past it. So, after they escaped Azula’s attack on the Air Temple, he decided to take action. Tracking down the man who killed her mother was not a universally popular decision, but Aang didn’t get to make his or Katara’s choices for them, even if he was the Avatar and their soulmate. He wasn’t sure that he could have made the same decision she had. Would he let the man who murdered his mother go? He doubted it. Still, it was a choice she’d gotten to make. He was glad she could get some closure. The knowledge that his mother was still out there, still alive had been eating at him ever since the eclipse.

He wasn’t really expecting Katara to turn to him afterwards and fully forgive him. He would have been happy if she’d just thawed her attitude a bit. Instead, he found himself drawn into a hug. He heard her offering to hear his side of things.

“I’m… honestly dying to know what happened when the connection died. We were all so worried.” She admitted as the settled down next to each other at the end of the dock. Aang had apparently decided not to stay and snoop. Zuko suspected he was the one of his soulmates who wouldn’t. Inexplicably, he felt warm inside at this knowledge.

It made it easier to tell his final soulmate what had happened. He started with chasing them and realizing it was wrong and figuring out they were soulmates. When he finally told her what happened to the connection, he explained in much the same way that he had to Sokka, and later to Toph and Aang. He’d been burned and closed the connection to protect them. When the finished, Katara seemed unsatisfied.

“Is something wrong?” Zuko asked. Katara hesitated.

“Look,” she said at length, “I don’t want you to feel like you have to tell me if you’re not ready. Don’t tell me if you don’t want to, but… Who hurt you, Zuko? How did that happen?” Now it was Zuko’s turn to hesitate.

“It’s okay, I can talk about it now, I think. It… it was my dad.” He told her everything. The words came pouring out. He’d never told anyone before, and now that he’d started it was like opening a floodgate. When he was done, Katara was silent for a long time.

“Zuko I need you to promise me something.” She said finally.

“What?” he asked.

“Promise me you’ll never close the bond again. The suspense and doubt, it’s worse than the pain. If you have to choose again, let us help you. Don’t shut us out.”

“O-okay.” Zuko stuttered, thrown off by the seriousness of her tone.

~:~:~

With only a few days left to the comet, Aang vanished off the face of the earth. According to June and her shirshu, Nyla, at least. Well, and their marks. The blue arrow had dimmed several shades the morning the woke up to discover him gone. All attempts to reach him via their link were met with empty silence. They could all feel that they weren’t connecting. In the end, they were forced to admit that they weren’t going to be able to find him. 

This forced Zuko to turn to his utterly nerve wracking and slightly crazy plan B. Which, for some reason, everyone else went along with. Zuko couldn’t decide if this was another display of disproportionate trust, or just a sign of how truly desperate the all were to come up with some way to make this work without Aang here.

Which is how Zuko found himself standing in front of his uncle’s tent. He tried not to reveal his fear, but his soulmates seemed to sense it just the same. Katara was apparently delegated by the others to be on comfort Zuko duty, because after a brief conversation with Toph and Sokka, she came over to stand next to him. To his own surprise, it was Zuko himself who broke the silence.

“My uncle is the last family I have who isn’t crazy or evil or both, and he hates me. I know it. What I did to him was unforgivable. I just… can’t go in there and get final confirmation that I’ve lost the last family I have left.” He admitted. Katara reached out and touched his shoulder.

“Zuko, I don’t think your Uncle will hate you. If he really loves you, he’ll forgive you for this.” Her tone was serious, and she looked him dead in the eyes as she spoke, “but even if he doesn’t, he is not your only family. Your soulmatesyou’re your family, too. Once we finish this, you and Toph and Aang going to have to come to the South Pole. In the South, we have this tradition where all of the soulmates of tribe members are made part of the tribe. You are going to go ice dodging and penguin sledding and Gran-Gran will gripe about how thin you are and force you to eat extra helpings of everything. Whatever happens in there, you have a family.”

“Thanks, Katara.” He replied, and as he made to move towards the tent she added one last thing,

“And for the record, I agree with Toph on one thing; no one hurts my soulmates. If he turns you away, we will find a way to get back at him after this is all over.” She said seriously. Then she left, and Zuko entered the tent feeling considerably better than before.

~:~:~

It probably said something bad about his family that getting shot in the chest by a lightning bolt shot by his sister, who had somehow gone ever crazier in the handful of months he’d been gone, was only the third worst moment of his life. As he crumpled to the ground, he was vaguely aware of Katara crying out from a combination of pain and fear behind him. He world seemed to fade and blur around him, as if nothing was real except him and the pain lancing through his body. 

Azula and Katara exchanged barbs and blows somewhere nearby, but it all felt far, far away to him. Dimly he thought that he couldn’t let Katara face his sister by herself, but the agony he felt when he attempted to move convinced him that helping wasn’t an option. Time passed strangely, all this felt simultaneously to take a matter of seconds and hours upon hours. He was beginning to float into unconsciousness when he heard it.

“Sparky, you are not allowed to die.” Toph’s voice cut through his pain. “You have come too far to die before you rub your victory into your crazy evil family’s face.”

“Toph’s right. You need to hold on. Katara’s mark is still strong, she can heal you if you just keep it together long enough for her to get to you.” Sokka asserted. 

Later, his soulmates would explain to him that along with the pain in their chests, they also all got the fear associated with seeing their soulmate’s mark flickering between white and color for several agonizing minutes as he hung on the edge of death. Aang didn’t chime in, still embroiled in his fight with Ozai, and Katara was fighting Azula, but his other two soulmates stayed with him, talking to him, half begging him to be okay.

Slowly, the rest of the world came back into focus. The first thing he was aware of outside of the pain and his soulmates voices was the soothing effect of the water on his chest. Slowly, Katara and the courtyard came back into his perception. The frantic voices of his soulmates still ringing in his ears.

“Thank you.” He croaked to Katara. She gave him a watery smile,

“I’m pretty sure I’m the one who should be thanking you.” She teased as he painfully sat up. As quickly as his aching body would allow, he pulled off the wrapping on his arm and pressed his hand to his marks.

“I’m fine, guys.” He reassured them, “Katara got to me in time, I’m okay.” 

Katara gave him a very stern look, then ripped off her own arm wrap to touch her own marks.

“He is most assuredly neither ‘okay’ or ‘fine’. He’s just not on the brink of death anymore.” Katara informed them, the strange effect of having her both next to him and in his head reverberating oddly. “But we got Azula. How are things on your end?”

“Me, Toph and Suki took out the entire air fleet!” Sokka exclaimed,

“It was mostly me and Suki.” Toph told them.

“It was not! I was essential to the process!” 

“What about Ozai? Did Aang turn up?” Zuko asked, noticing that Aang’s mark had returned to its normal color on his arm.

“Oh yea, Aang showed up and he did some weird Avatar-thing to strip away Ozai’s bending.” And with that Sokka launched into a lengthy explanation of the events. He was regularly interrupted by Aang and Toph, and eventually Zuko and Katara chimed in with their own story. In the end, their conversation lasted until they’d all reconvened in the courtyard of the palace. Zuko had moved all of ten feet, and only with the assistance of Katara, but he was now standing upright, even if he was leaning against a pillar.

Still, the moment Appa touched down the others were leaping down from the bison’s back and rushing across the courtyard. As he was drawn into an enthusiastic, if slightly painful, group hug, Zuko realized that he was slowly getting used to being hugged by his soulmates. He felt, for the first time since he’d been barely even eleven years old, that the future might just be bright.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay... I admit this is really just an excuse to give Zuko all the hugs and affection he deserves. I just can't help myself!


End file.
